Days for Girls is pleased to announce that Eunice Chimphoyo-Banda of Malawi, South Africa is now serving as our official Malawi Country Representative! In this role, Eunice will oversee the operations of volunteer programs and build networks to fulfill the Days for Girls mission.
“Women and girls have a lot of untapped potential,” she says. “Through advocacy, provision of menstrual hygiene management (MHM) education and sanitary solutions, part of the essential keys to unlock that potential is provided.”
Currently, Eunice is working with the Malawi government’s National Planning Commission to establish policies for maintaining menstrual hygiene rights for future generations.
She has also facilitated a partnership between Days for Girls and Malawi’s First Ladies Foundation Shaping our Future Foundation (SOFF) to distribute Days for Girls kits and to provide menstrual MHM education to thousands of Malawi students. The partnership, through the Ministry of Education, will also offer workshops at Teacher Training Colleges throughout the country. At the community level, the DfG/SOFF collaboration will engage local chiefs, the Speaker of Parliament and her deputies, parliamentarians and other stakeholders.
“(We) will work to provide civic education on girls’ menstrual rights to ensure provision of a conducive environment for the girls at home, in the community and at school,” she says.
In 2018, inspired by her own experience as a teen who faced adversity, she founded Zayane Creations: a DfG social enterprise that supports women and girls facing gender-based violence, poor health and poverty. Through trauma counseling, human rights education, peer to peer exchange and skills training, the enterprise empowers vulnerable women to learn self-value, dignity and income generation. They design, produce and sell home accessories, purses, shoes and jewelry to support their families.
To date, the program has helped 178 women, most of whom now earn enough money to afford basic needs and an education for their children.
Eunice graduated with her degree in psychology and public administration from the University of Malawi Chancellor and has received numerous awards for business innovation, social work and education. In 2017, she earned a post-graduate diploma in business studies from African Business Institute in Uganda.
She has two sons who are actively involved in her efforts and one grandson. In her free time, Eunice enjoys designing jewelry/clothes, baking, knitting, landscaping and is currently writing a book.
“I love working with DfG because it provides me with a platform to be part of a team of change makers who are transforming the world of women who constantly face inequality of various forms of marginalization and inequalities, including period poverty,” she says.
